by Jamaica Rose
With the poor diet that seamen got in the 1600s and 1700s, symptoms of scurvy could appear after as little as six weeks at sea.
Vitamin C is fragile. In foods that contain vitamin C, its strength can be weakened by exposure to heat, sunlight, air, just sitting around for a long time, and contact with copper (the pots that sea cooks used were usually made of copper).
Human bodies need vitamin C to make collagen, a protein that holds our cells together, especially scar tissue. When a body runs out of vitamin C, the collagen begins to come apart. Recent wounds never heal. Then old wounds reopen as scar tissue breaks down.
Many different recipes to prevent scurvy were tried:
boiled-down concentrate of lemons called “rob”;
a powder called “saloop” (made from orchid roots);
dried malt;
pickled cabbage (sauerkraut).
Of these preventatives, pickled cabbage was one of the few preserved foods that not only had vitamin C in useful amounts but also kept well. In fact, it had long been used among the Dutch.
Once the British figured out the cause of scurvy in the mid 1700s, they then made a practice of carrying limes on ships as much as possible. They mixed a certain amount of limejuice with their rum ration every day. This led to their nickname of “Limeys.”
The word “scurvy” originally referred to someone whose skin was covered with scabs (a result of scurvy). The word later came to also mean something or someone that was sorry, worthless, and vile.
Now, the next time yer mother tells you to eat all yer veggies, are ya gonna do it? Otherwise, you might become a “scurvy dog.”
Has Ya Got Scurvy?
The 10 Signs of Scurvy
1. Yer fingernails & lips turn bluish.
2. Yer gums are sore & bleed easily.
3. Yer teeth are loose & even start falling out.
4. You lose yer appetite fer rum.
5. Rats drool at the sight of you.
6. You can no longer swing the cat.
7. The bilge water starts ta smell good to you.
8. You can’t remember how to find the poop deck.
9. Yer extremities start fallin’ off at an alarming rate.
10. Ya swells up, turns purple & they use you for a buoy.
Bilge Rat Tartar: Finding Fresh Meat at Sea
After several months at sea, the food on board ship was really, REALLY bad. The meat was rotten and wormy, fresh vegetables were long gone, and the salt beef was so hard that they carved buttons out of it. The almost indestructible hardtack biscuits were crumbling to dust. Even the water had turned funny colors and was smelling really foul. But there was one type of meat that was fresh, nutritious, and plentiful on board. We’re talking about a nice fat bilge rat.
There are many accounts from Royal Navy sailors that tell how they added some fresh meat to their diet. (We imagine a few pirates might have done this too.) They caught rats and fed them pieces of ship’s biscuit to fatten them up. When they got nice and fat, the sailor killed the poor little ratties, dredged them in flour, and fried them up. When cooked up, there was even a special name for such a delicacy. They were called “millers,” perhaps from the coating of flour.
Seabirds were rarely caught and used for fresh meat (such as noddies or boobies) because they gave such little meat. They were only eaten in an emergency, such as being stranded or adrift at sea. And no matter what, you certainly did not want to kill an albatross. Just talk to the Ancient Mariner to find out about the hazards of that one. (The “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the story of a sailor who is cursed for killing an albatross, from a famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)
Pastimes for Scurvy Dogs
Drat! They’re Rats!
This is a game with rats. It is A.S.P.C.A. approved.
You will need:
String
Tape
Bamboo poles, about 1/2–3/4 inch in diameter and about 3 feet long
Large-diameter rubber bands
12 to 24 plastic rats*
Stopwatch or timer
This is a fun game for a pirate party. Before your party starts, make “fishing poles” (actually, they are “ratting poles”). Cut a length of string about 3 feet long. With tape, fix one end of the string to the tip of the pole. Tie a rubber band at the other end of the string.
To play the game, pile the rats in a heap on the floor. Make a line on the floor with masking tape. The players must stand behind this line while playing (let little kids stand a little closer). Give the first player a “ratting” pole. The idea is to “hook” a rat around a leg, tail, or whisker with the rubber band and hoist it back over the line.
Give each player 1 minute. See who can catch the most rats in that time.
*Rats can usually be purchased from Oriental Tradering Company, as well as several other sources, especially around Halloween www.oriental trading.com.
Cap’n Michael says:
Mmmmm...Roast Rat on a stick, and you can use the whiskers for dental floss when yer done.
Is that a Turtle I Smell Cookin’?
The buccaneers roamed widely through the Caribbean and Spanish Main. Food was usually hit and miss, with periods of feast or famine—often the latter. His diet may not have always been healthy, but the typical buccaneer ate much better than the salt pork and maggoty biscuit diet that was on hand aboard naval and merchant ships.
Buccaneers didn’t have to depend on the supplies that the Admiralty Board or some shipping company decided they could live on. They controlled provisioning of their vessels. No more half rotten food if they could help it. They liked their food fresh and they knew how to get it from the islands.
Buccaneers often put in at secluded bays for water or food. Sometimes they stayed longer to careen their ships. While some of the crew worked on the ship, hunting parties looked for food. As luck had it, food flourished on the islands. Native fruits and vegetables grew in profusion. There were yams, bananas (plantains), pineapples, papayas, guavas, dates, and other fruits. Those huge, green bananas—plantains—were found to be useful on ship. They did not ripen and spoil but remained hard. Yet, thrown into hot ashes, they baked into a tasty and healthy treat.
Buccaneers would often go well out of their way to visit an island where sea turtles came ashore. Upside-down, turtles could be kept alive aboard ship for long periods of time, thus providing a source of fresh meat. This delicacy was so popular, some turtle species were almost driven into extinction.
Buccaneers often hunted the cattle and wild boar that roamed wild on the islands. From the local Arawak Indians, they had learned how to smoke the meat on a wood rack. This process was called “boucaning,” which lent its name to the word boucanier (French for buccaneer).
Buccaneers also cooked young pigs luau-style. They built a deep fire pit to roast them. Seasoned with some stolen spices and wrapped with the large banana leaves, the little piglet emerged tasty and tender. (See the Jerk Pork.)
Banana leaves were also used to cook fish. The sea gave up a wide variety of food. Many shellfish were found close to shore, and they found their way into much of the pirates’ cooking. With local greens added along with the juice of some lemons or limes, some quite tasty dishes could be prepared.
The resourceful seamen were quick to put the abundance of the Caribbean to their use. Much of today’s Caribbean cuisine came from buccaneer cooking. Local tubers with wild garlic and onion mixed with a potpourri of fish and spices were the forerunner of gumbo. And the buccaneers’ favorite concoction (when there were enough ingredients at hand) was a type of stew called “salmagundi.”
Salmagundi consisted of marinated meat (often turtle, fish, pork, chicken, or beef) mixed with any type of vegetable (cabbage and onions were common), eggs, anchovies, pickled herring, grapes, limes, wine or ale, garlic, salt, pepper, oil, and spices (whatever was on hand). The meats was roasted, chopped into chunks, and marinated in the spiced wine or ale. The meat was then combined with whatever other food
s they had, and all was highly seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and mustard seed, and covered with oil and vinegar. Also called “grand salad,” its name probably derived from a warping of the medieval French word salemine, meaning salted or highly seasoned.
The assorted backgrounds of the buccaneers, and a knack for making something different out of simple things, lent adventure to meals. No matter how it turned out, buccaneers were sure glad they weren’t eating hardtack and weevils anymore.
Buccaneers fishing for turtles.
An Authentic Old Salt’s Recipe
Jerk Pork: Cooking a Suckling Pig Maroon-Style
Start with a freshly butchered suckling pig. Season it inside and out with salt, pepper, and allspice (the dark brown berry of a tree growing in Jamaica). Stuff the inside of the pig with cooked rice mixed with a little ginger and chopped onion. Wrap the entire pig in pimento leaves for flavor and green banana leaves for protection.
To prepare the cooking pit, dig a hole about two feet deep, line it with rocks, and build a wood fire in it (have an adult help you with the fire). When the fire has burned down to the coals, remove any chunks of unburnt wood and place the leaf-wrapped pig in the hole. Using a shovel, rake the coals toward the pig so it is surrounded on all sides (including the top) by live coals and hot rocks. The hole is then covered with a piece of corrugated metal, and dirt is put on top of that.
When the pig is cooked in three or four hours, it is unwrapped and browned over hot coals or in the oven. Heavenly!
Pastimes for Scurvy Dogs
Belly Timber: How Do You Feed a Crew of Hungry Pirates?
If you are throwing a pirate party, you can have a lot of fun coming up with great “pirate” food for it. Make up ghastly pirate names for any food or drink you serve, like Monkey’s Blood Punch or Shark Gristle Cake. Decorate the cake with Treasure Island decorations. Lego pirate toys and other small plastic pirates make great cake decorations. Make skull ’n’ crossbones cookies out of sugar cookie dough using a pirate-shaped cookie cutter.
Menu for the Captain’s Surprise Birthday Party
(You can print this out as a humorous sign for your next pirate party.)
Hardtack & Crunchy Weevily Soufflé
Bilge Rat Tartar
Toredo Worm Tempestuo
Barnacle Bill’s Bilious Barnacle Bisque
Gaston’s Mystery Pound Cake (...don’t ask)
Edward Thatch’s Rum & Gunpowder Punch (“It’ll blow you away!”)
Recipes from Gaston’s Galley
Watermelon Pirate Ship
A watermelon fruit bowl shaped like a ship, with cucumber long boats.
You will need:
1 large, long watermelon
Carving knife or special rind decoration (pumpkin carving) tool
Paper
Markers to make designs on sails
Wooden skewers
Tape
String
Fruit salad (oranges, pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe are suggested)
Cucumbers or zucchini (optional)
Toothpicks (optional)
Directions:
1. Cut a thin slice lengthwise from the bottom of the watermelon to make a flat base so the melon won’t rock. (Don’t rock the boat!)
2. Using a picture of a pirate ship as a guide, draw the outlines for the ship.
3. Use a knife or decorating tool to cut along the lines of the pattern (you might need adult help for this part). Cut all the way through the rind.
4. Remove the top section of rind; you may have to cut it into two pieces and remove one piece at a time. Reserve for later.
5. Remove the red watermelon flesh and place in a large bowl.
6. Use paper to make the sails. You can write a message on the largest sail. (“Happy Birthday,” “Congratulations,” etc.)
7. Use long wooden skewers as masts to hold up the sails. Attach sideways wooden skewers to the top and bottom of each paper sail. These are your yardarms. Tape the yardarms to your masts.
8. Add more detail to your ship, such as placing gun ports on the side and carving the name of the ship across the back.
9. Be creative and use the unused top portion of the rind to make other parts of the ship, such as the ship’s wheel, gangplank, and cannons.
10. In the large bowl, mix the reserved watermelon with the other fruit salad. Fill the open part of the ship with fruit salad mixture.
11. Add finishing touches to your boat. Use string to make shrouds and ratlines on the side. More string can make the various lines on a ship.
12. Don’t forget a black pirate flag at the topmast!
13. Use cucumbers (or zucchini) to make long boats to accompany the pirate ship. Toothpicks can be the oars. You can put Lego pirates or small plastic pirate toys in the long boats and on the pirate ship for an extra touch. Use another skewer with a piece of paper to add smaller sails to the cucumber boats.
I’m Just In It for the Rum
Now, you’ve all heard the stories about how much pirates liked to drink. Aye, those rum-sodden sailors were supposed to be legendary in that regard.
Many books, movies, and stories show them this way. Pirates have been shown as being excessively drunk most of the time.
Only problem with this idea was that in the 1600s and 1700s, almost EVERYONE drank alcohol, and lots of it—EVEN SMALL CHILDREN. (Now don’t you kids go sayin’ that Cap’n Michael and Jamaica Rose told you it was okay to drink, cuz it’s not. It’s not good for yer growing brain cells. But kids of those times had little choice. Read on, we’ll explain.)
Instant Pirate...Just Add Rum
Water was often unhealthy. Near towns and farms, water sources frequently got polluted with waste from people and livestock. Drinking the water could often make you sick. Many people, especially kids, got sick and died from drinking bad water. Scientists were only just learning about germs and bacteria and very small things that make water impure. People found it was much safer to glug down beer, wine, or even stronger drink, than to drink the water. Alcohol kills off germs (similar to how it destroys your brain cells!). People found it safer to drink beer or wine than to take a chance on the water. It was better to be healthy, alive, and have your thinking be a little fuzzy than risk staying sober while drinking water.
The water situation was even worse onboard ships. Water was stored in wooden kegs for weeks and months at a time. Can you imagine how putrid already questionable water became when stored in wooden kegs for a long time? It turned GREEN and slimy, and would get wormy things wiggling in it. YUCK!
Ships often made stops just to get fresh water, but when crossing big oceans, it could be a long way before the next landfall. Water often went bad.
On the other hand, beer, rum, and other fermented drinks kept nicely in wooden barrels. After a time, wine might turn more vinegary and beer could get a sour taste, but they didn’t get putrid and unhealthy. Now rum, on the other hand, just got better and better the longer it stayed in an oak keg.
Sailors on naval ships and merchant ships usually got a liquor ration twice a day. There were actually several benefits to drinking alcohol:
It provided liquid calories.
It provided a sense of warmth and strengthened the sailors against the wet and cold.
Hardships could be temporarily forgotten in a drunken haze.
It helped promote brotherhood and friendship among the crew
Boredom brought on by days of empty ocean could be relieved.
In the face of battle, it could give you a sense of courage. Liquor was even called “Dutch Courage” because of the practice of the Dutch in handing around drinks to their crews just before battle.
Pirates had one more benefit to drinking:
Freedom to drink at any time was definite proof to a pirate that he was free—a symbol of personal liberty. Onboard a British navy ship, a sailor only got a small ration of rum, once a day, and onboard most merchant vessels, the crew wasn’t allowed to drink at all.
Drinking and carousing sometimes caused disastrous results for pirate crews. Drink led to the end of Blackbeard. He and his crew stayed up late partying and drinking “punch” with Samuel Odell, a merchant friend who happened along in his vessel the day before. The next morning, as the pirate crew lay around in a drunken fog, Lieutenant Robert Maynard was able to overcome Blackbeard and his crew.
Bartholomew Roberts was killed and his crew captured as they lay about their ships in a drunken stupor after a night celebrating a successful attack. This was ironic because Bartholomew Roberts was well known as a teetotaler (he avoided strong drink and sipped tea instead). He even tried to control the drinking of his crew. His pirate articles restricted drinking to the main deck only. This was for fear of fire and to reduce fighting in the close quarters of belowdecks. Overall, he was one of the most successful pirates, having captured more than four hundred vessels, and perhaps his lack of drinking contributed to his success. But he couldn’t completely stop his men from drinking, and that was their eventual downfall.
B.Y.O.L.: Bring Your Own Lime
Did the pirates drink only rum? Of course not, mates! They drank whatever they could get their hands on. Rum was the most common liquor available. If they had a choice, though, they preferred brandy. Wine was usually drunk if nothing else was available, though the French buccaneers were partial to it (and it was useful in that it protected against scurvy).